


300 Yen For Your Thoughts

by Misty_Reeyus



Series: True Colors [1]
Category: Magic Kaito
Genre: Emotional Baggage, Friendship, Gen, Running Away, post-identity reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 05:23:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7744909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misty_Reeyus/pseuds/Misty_Reeyus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aoko has been missing for three days when Akako finally manages to find her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	300 Yen For Your Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> written for Aokako Week > Day 4: Kaito (Kid)
> 
> but also, written just because this entire "True Colors" series has been bouncing around in my head for a long time and i figured now was as a good a time as any to start _actually_ writing it

Aoko has been missing for three days when Akako finally manages to find her.

It shouldn’t have taken Akako this long. She should have immediately realized something was _wrong_ when Aoko didn’t show up to school the day after that disastrous Kid heist; she should have fixed her broken magic mirror ages ago, so that she could have asked it immediately instead of resorting to the much more complicated and time-consuming locator spell. Hell, in the first place, she and Kuroba and Hakuba should have gone after Aoko when she ran from the museum in the middle of the heist—maybe then, she wouldn’t have gone missing at all.

At the time, they’d all thought that it’d be best to just let Aoko have some space for a while. None of them ever imagined that on that very night, she would actually run away from home.

Now, Akako stands in front of the very same building she’d seen reflected in the surface of her cauldron, and scrunches up her nose in distaste. The exterior looks even more shabby in person, and as she steps inside, her nostrils are instantly assaulted with the heady, off-putting scent of junk food and used books. She glances at the sign: 300 yen for an hour, 1500 for a night.

A cheap, run-down manga cafe in the backstreets of Haido City. It’s certainly not the first place any of them would have gone looking for Aoko.

Then again, that’s probably why she chose it.

Akako hastily hands over the hourly fee just so she can enter, then makes her way past the aisles of comics towards the computer booths where people sleep. Most of them are vacant, and Akako doesn’t hesitate to pull back the curtains of any that aren’t; she quickly finds Aoko in the fourth one she checks, curled up and sleeping in a worn recliner chair.

Akako shuts the curtain behind her, then reaches out to shake Aoko by the shoulders. “Nakamori-san?”

There’s a gentle groan, and blue eyes slowly flutter open, blinking up at her fuzzily, uncomprehendingly. But after a moment, Akako sees recognition flash across her face, and Aoko groans again, this time quite irritably, as she presses the back of her hand over her eyes.

“Go away.”

Akako frowns in defiance. “We’ve been looking for you.”

Kuroba’s probably still drowning in guilt right about now, and Hakuba and Inspector Nakamori have all but thrown themselves into the search. Akako didn’t tell any of them when she learned where Aoko was—the detectives would have wanted to know how she found out, but she couldn’t exactly tell them that she’d used a magic spell, and as for Kuroba…

Well, he’s probably the very last person Aoko wants to see right now.

“Have you been here the whole time?” Akako continues.

Aoko bites her lip like she doesn’t want to answer, but after a while, she apparently gives up, sighing and shaking her head. “No. I stayed in a different manga cafe yesterday. I was afraid if I stayed in the same one for too long, someone would get suspicious that I was a runaway.” She uncovers her eyes to shoot Akako an uncertain, almost _scared_ look. “…Are you here to drag me back?”

“That’s the plan, yes.”

“Hah.” Aoko scoffs. “So you expect me to just…go home? Back to where Kaito’s right next door, and he usually comes over for breakfast and dinner? Back to where my dad always complains about how Kid got away from him again, and I’ll have to sit there and look at both of them and pretend that I don’t know anything but now I _do_ —!” She inhales sharply, cutting herself off, and holds her breath for a few seconds before slowly, shakily letting it out. “…No. I don’t want to see either of them right now.”

“But Nakamori-san—”

“You know, I don’t particularly want to see _you_ , either.” Aoko interrupts before Akako can try to say anything, and it almost surprises Akako how the words send a pang through her chest. “You knew. You, and Hakuba-kun too, you both _knew_! We all founded the Kaitou Kid Capture Brigade together, but none of you even wanted to capture him at all, did you?”

It’s an accusation, and it’s not entirely wrong—but even so, Aoko barely puts any force behind it. She doesn’t even really seem angry; she seems lonely and tired and confused and upset and _hurt_ , but not angry. Somehow, that only makes Akako feel worse, her heart dropping guiltily into to her stomach.

Damn this girl, for making Akako actually _care_.

“…I’m sorry.” Akako doesn’t really know what else she can say. “It didn’t…start like that, though. We weren’t all in on it from the beginning. Kuroba-kun didn’t tell us, we each figured it out on our own.”

“Like that’s better?” Aoko mumbles, eyes glistening, tears clearly threatening to spill. “You two transferred here just this year, but you’ve already figured him out. Meanwhile, I’ve been his best friend for a _decade_ , and I didn’t have a clue.”

That’s not even an accusation anymore, Akako realizes. Aoko’s blaming _herself_ right now, probably has _been_ blaming herself ever since the moment she managed to unmask Kaitou Kid on the museum roof—and Akako immediately moves to intervene.

“Hakuba-kun is a detective. He’s trained to find the truth, that’s his _job_. And I—” Akako stops mid-sentence, suddenly realizing exactly what she was about to reveal.

Aoko blinks confusedly. “And you…?”

“I-I…,” Akako stammers, “had an unfair advantage.”

Aoko just stares pointedly, as if asking with her eyes, _Are you gonna elaborate or not?_

Akako sighs.

“A part of me,” she starts, “has actually wanted you to know Kuroba-kun’s secret for a while now. But I didn’t tell you because…it wasn’t for me to tell.” Akako gazes down at her hands, taking a deep breath to steady her heartbeat. “This, though? This secret is all mine.”

Before she can chicken out, Akako calls upon the magic in her blood as she snaps her fingers—and a tiny flame lights up at the tip of her pinky, then dances its way down to her thumb. Aoko just stares blankly at the jumping ember, somehow managing to seem both fascinated and utterly lost at the same time.

“So…what? Are you a magician now, too? Did Kaito teach you to do that?”

Akako can’t help but scoff. “Please. You can’t even compare this to his little tricks. This is a spell, _real_ magic.”

To drive it home, Akako lights up more flames on each of the other four fingertips, waving them all in the air; she mumbles a quick mantra under her breath and points with her other hand and Aoko visibly startles as the computer abruptly spits out its CD player.

“I am a witch, Nakamori-san. I found out Kuroba-kun’s secret identity through magical means. In fact, that’s also how I discovered that you were hiding out in this place.”

Slowly, Aoko turns back to meet Akako’s gaze, and Akako wills all the flames to merge into a single one that she holds afloat in her palm. Akako gazes at its reflection flickering in blue eyes, waits with bated breath for a reaction and hopes that Aoko will be able to see that she’s really being earnest right now.

It’s weird, this odd sense of _unease_ in her stomach, this uncomfortable fear of rejection. Kid finding out about her powers was one thing, but Akako has never outright _confessed_ to anyone about her powers before, nor has she ever so _wanted_ for someone else to believe her.

“You…really expect me to believe that?” Aoko looks unsure, but it’s more along the lines of cautious hesitance than outright incredulity, so Akako decides not to push it further. A tentative inclination towards belief is probably the best she’s going to get for now.

“You can believe whatever you wish.” Akako clenches her hand into a fist, smothering the flame entirely. “But I’m telling the truth. I’m sorry for hiding it until now, and I’m sorry for hiding Kuroba-kun’s secret as well.”

Aoko doesn’t say anything, and Akako knows better than to think she’ll be forgiven so easily. But Aoko at least deserved the explanation.

“It’s not an excuse, but I had my reasons for not telling you about my magic,” Akako continues. “Kuroba-kun also had his reasons for doing everything he did, but that’s something he’ll have to bring up with you himself.”

Aoko curls in on herself in the chair, pulling her knees up to her chest.

Akako bends down to meet her eyes again. “He’s worried sick about you. So is your father, so is Hakuba-kun, so is everyone from class.”

_So am I._

“Look, I…” Aoko sighs, running her fingers through her hair (Akako notes with no small amount of concern that it’s significantly more unkempt than usual; has she even had a single shower since she ran away?). “It’s not like I’ll _never_ go back. Of course I have to return home eventually. But…right now, I just need to _not_ be around my dad, because I still feel like the moment I see him again, I might just tell him everything. I just need to not be around Kaito, because for the past few days, I’ve wanted nothing more than to explode in his face.”

Akako purses her lips.

She still doesn’t like this at all. Being out here alone is dangerous, and Aoko clearly doesn’t have the money or the willpower to properly take care of herself right now, and now that Akako’s found her, she cannot in good conscience leave her be. But…Akako thinks she understands, too, if only a little bit. It’s not just that Aoko doesn’t want to go home; she genuinely feels like she _can’t_ go home yet, out of fear of what her newfound knowledge might lead her to do.

“You can stay at my house.”

Akako doesn’t even realize she’s saying it until her own voice rings in her ears, and Aoko abruptly _snaps_ her head up to stare at her. Akako can hardly believe her own big mouth—even after officially befriending the rest of the Capture Brigade, she’d never offered to let any of them stay over before, because all the magical artifacts laying around the place _really_ weren’t meant for normal human eyes.

But then, Akako _did_ just confess to Aoko that she’s a witch. It’s not like there’s really anything to hide anymore.

“I can’t promise the conditions will be entirely to your liking, but surely anything’s better than continuing to sleep in places like _this_.” Akako pointedly gestures to the uncomfortable-looking chair, and Aoko fidgets knowingly, apparently not inclined to disagree. “I live far enough from your own house that you won’t have to see your father or Kuroba-kun. And…” Akako shifts on her feet, runs her fingers nervously through her own hair. “And if you don’t want to see me either, I can simply stay out of your way. I have a butler; you could ask him for anything.”

All throughout the offer, Aoko just stares. For a long time after, neither of them says anything.

Aoko is the one who breaks the silence. “If I _did_ say yes, are you going to tell all the others that I’m staying with you?”

Well, no point in lying. “I _would_ have to tell them that,” Akako admits. “They need to know that much so they’ll stop worrying. But I will also tell them that you don’t want to see them right now. As long as they know you’re safe, I’m sure they can be convinced.”

Slowly, without once breaking eye contact, Aoko stands up from the chair, stretching her arms over her head and arching her back so that Akako can hear her spine crackle and pop. She still doesn’t speak, doesn’t make to move, just stands there and stares hard into Akako’s face while Akako stares back steadily, determinedly.

One way or another, Akako is _not_ leaving without her.

“…Fine then,” Aoko finally mumbles, glancing at the chair. “I guess I do need to sleep in a real bed again.”

Akako can’t help it—relief floods her chest, curling her lips into a genuine smile, and she nods gratefully.

It’s not quite forgiveness and not quite reconciliation, and it probably won’t be for a while yet. But at least it’s a step in the right direction.


End file.
